A. Personal Statement 

I am Professor of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh. I am a board-certified practicing pathologist; with subspecialty fellowship training in Genitourinary Pathology; and currently serve as the Chief of Pathology at Shadyside Hospital, one of the flagship hospitals of UPMC that services the Hillman Cancer Center. I have been the Medical Director of the Health Sciences Tissue Bank (HSTB) of the University of Pittsburgh since 1997. I oversee the tissue and biological specimen collection at the 3 flagship hospitals of the University of Pittsburgh Health Systems. This Tissue Resource has developed into a large resource for basic and translational research at the University of Pittsburgh as well collaborative research with investigators outside the University of Pittsburgh. I have been the principal physician involved in developing and implementing an Institutional Honest broker system, incorporating the key data aggregation agencies at the University of Pittsburgh. I have also been involved in the Informatics related initiatives in the Tissue Banking space. I am also one of the participants in the RAND report on Tissue Banking. I have been an invited member of the Marble Arch group, an international consortium of Tissue Bankers.

I have served as the Core facility PI for the Tissue and Research Pathology (TARPS) for the Cancer Center Support Grant and the O’Brien Center. I also have a very productive relationship with Urologic research investigators and have 50 joint publications. Urology and Pathology have partnered on major research projects. In addition we have a strong relationship related to biobanking initiatives; with collaborative collection for nationally prominent initiatives like TCGA and CPTAC. We will adequately support the needs of this Idea development grant.

My primary role will be in overseeing and assisting BPH related efforts; the investigative goals of this proposal. This includes sourcing paraffin for studies, and assessing the slides for BPH. I will serve as the point person to ensure that the Pathology Department continues its strong relationship with Urologic research, responding to tissue pathology support requests and providing Pathology and Immunohistochemical services; as needed by this proposal. Relevant publications for the O’Brien submission:

1. An artificial intelligence algorithm for prostate cancer diagnosis in whole slide images of core needle biopsies: a blinded clinical validation and deployment study. Liron Pantanowitz, Gabriela M Quiroga[1]Garza, Lilach Bien, Ronen Heled, Daphna Laifenfeld, Chaim Linhart, Judith Sandbank, Anat Albrecht Shach, Varda Shalev, Manuela Vecsler, Pamela Michelow, Scott Hazelhurst, and Rajiv Dhir. Lancet Digital Health 2020; e407–16; August, 2020. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30159-X
2. Tight junction protein claudin-1 is downregulated by TGF-β1 via MEK signaling in benign prostatic epithelial cells. Wang K, Pascal LE, Li F, Chen W, Dhir R, Balasubramani GK, DeFranco DB, Yoshimura N, He D, Wang Z. Prostate. 2020 Jul 21. PMID: 32692865; PMCID: PMC7710618; NIHMS:1624842.
3. Conditional Deletion of Eaf1 Induces Murine Prostatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia in Mice. Pascal LE, Su F, Wang D, Ai J, Song Q, Wang Y, O'Malley KJ, Cross B, Rigatti LH, Green A, Dhir R, Wang Z. Neoplasia. 2019 Jun 20;21(8):752-764. PMID: 31229879; PMCID: PMC6593215.
4. E-cadherin is downregulated in benign prostatic hyperplasia and required for tight junction formation and permeability barrier in the prostatic epithelial cell monolayer. Li F, Pascal LE, Stolz DB, Wang K, Zhou Y, Chen W, Xu Y, Chen Y, Dhir R, Parwani AV, Nelson JB, DeFranco DB, Yoshimura N, Balasubramani GK, Gingrich JR, Maranchie JK, Jacobs BL, Davies BJ, Hrebinko RL, Bigley JD, McBride D, Guo P, He D, Wang Z. Prostate. 2019 Aug;79(11):1226-1237. PMID: 31212363; PMCID: PMC6599563; NIHMS:1021144.
5. Methods to Improve Sustainability of a Large Academic Biorepository. Kelly SM, Wiehagen LT, Schumacher PE, Dhir R. Biopreserv Biobank. 2017 Feb;15(1):31-36. doi: 10.1089/bio.2016.0076. Epub 2016 Nov 18. PMID: 27860489; PMCID: PMC5326922.

B. Positions and Honors 

Positions and Employment

11/97-12/99        Research Assistant Professor, Pathology, University of Pittsburgh,
                           Pittsburgh, PA
11/97-present     Director, Health Sciences Tissue Bank, University of Pittsburgh Health Systems
01/00-03/04        Assistant Professor, Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
04/00-present     Member, NCI coordination committee, Pathology, IRB and Marketing
                           Subcommittees, Cooperative Prostate Cancer Tissue Resource
07/00-present     Project Leader, Tissue Resource Core for the Director’s Challenge U01
                           funded for the “Molecular Reclassification of Prostate Cancer”
12/00-present     Project Leader, Tissue Resource Core for program project on Collaborative
                           Urologic Research in Spinal Cord Injury
06/01-present     Project Leader, Tissue Resource Core for the Lung SPORE
07/02-present     Division Director, Genito-Urinary Pathology, University of Pittsburgh
                           Health Systems
09/02-present     Chair, Marketing committee, Co-operative Prostate Cancer Tissue Resource
11/02-present     Member, NIDDK coordination committee, Pathology and Biomarker
                           Subcommittees, MTOPS consortium
01/04-present     Medical Director of the Tissue and Research Pathology Services,
                           Shared facility for the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Center
04/04-03/10        Associate Professor, Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
01/07-present    Chief of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
03/10-present    Professor of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
2011-present     Director, Pathology International Business Development, Pittsburgh, PA

Other Experience and Professional Memberships

American Urological Association                                                           2003-Present
American Association for Cancer Research, Inc.                                  2003-Present
Association of Pathology Informatics                                                    2001-Present
International Society for Biological and                                                 2000-Present
Environmental Repositories
International Association of Pathology                                                 1998-Present
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute                                              1998-Present
International Society of Urologic Pathology                                         1998-Present
Pittsburgh Pathology Society                                                               1994-Present
College of American Pathologists                                                        1992-Present
American Society of Clinical Pathologists                                            1992-Present
US and Canadian Academy of Pathology                                            1992-Present

Honors

UPMC ACES (Award for Commitment and Excellence in                   2014
Service)
Adrianna Selvaggio Dedication to Commitment and Quality               2013
Award from the Shadyside Hospital Medical Staff and
Administration
Smith Kline Beecham Travel Award from the Society for Basic           1995
Urologic Research
Finalist, Pathology Resident Awards, American Society for Clinical    1995
Pathology
National Talent Search Scheme Award, given by the National            1979
Council for Educational Research and Training, New Delhi, India.
National Award by the Govt. of India                                                    1978
National Award by the Govt. of India                                                    1977

C. Contribution to Science 

1.  I have been actively involved in identifying markers on diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic value in genitourinary malignancies.

a) An artificial intelligence algorithm for prostate cancer diagnosis in whole slide images of core needle biopsies: a blinded clinical validation and deployment study. Liron Pantanowitz, Gabriela M Quiroga[1]Garza, Lilach Bien, Ronen Heled, Daphna Laifenfeld, Chaim Linhart, Judith Sandbank, Anat Albrecht Shach, Varda Shalev, Manuela Vecsler, Pamela Michelow, Scott Hazelhurst, and Rajiv Dhir. Lancet Digital Health 2020; e407–16; August, 2020. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2589-7500(20)30159-X

b) Roy S, Pradhan D, Ernst WL, Mercurio S, Najjar Y, Parikh R, Parwani AV, Pai RK, Dhir R, Nikiforova MN. Next-generation sequencing-based molecular characterization of primary urinary bladder adenocarcinoma. Mod Pathol. 2017 Aug;30(8):1133-1143. PMID: 28548125

c) Renal cell neoplasms contain shared tumor type-specific copy number variations. Krill-Burger JM, Lyons MA, Kelly LA, Sciulli CM, Petrosko P, Chandran UR, Kubal MD, Bastacky SI, Parwani AV, Dhir R, Laframboise WA. Am J Pathol. 2012 Jun;180(6):2427-39. Epub 2012 Apr 3. PMCID: PMC3378847.

d) Differential proteomic analysis of renal cell carcinoma tissue interstitial fluid. Teng PN, Hood BL, Sun M, Dhir R, Conrads TP. J Proteome Res. 2011 Mar 4;10(3):1333-42. PMID 21142074

2.  Working with other colleagues, we have implemented a broad based research support system, including honest broker services for data triage to researchers, tissue and biological specimen acquisition.

a) Kelly SM, Wiehagen LT, Schumacher PE, Dhir R. Methods to Improve Sustainability of a Large Academic Biorepository. Biopreserv Biobank. 2017 Feb;15(1):31-36. PMID: 27860489; PMCID: PMC5326922.

b) Jacobson RS, Becich MJ, Bollag RJ, Chavan G, Corrigan J, Dhir R, Feldman MD, Gaudioso C, Legowski E, Maihle NJ, Mitchell K, Murphy M, Sakthivel M, Tseytlin E, Weaver J. A Federated Network for Translational Cancer Research Using Clinical Data and Biospecimens. Cancer Res. 2015 Dec 15;75(24):5194-201. PMID: 26670560; PMCID: PMC4683415.

c) Amin W, Parwani AV, Schmandt L, Mohanty SK, Farhat G, Pople AK, Winters SB, Whelan NB, Schneider AM, Milnes JT, Valdivieso FA, Feldman M, Pass HI, Dhir R, Melamed J, Becich MJ. National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank: a standard based biospecimen and clinical data resource to enhance translational research. BMC Cancer. 2008 Aug 13;8:236. PMID: 18700971; PMCID: PMC2533341.

d) Dhir R. Patel AA, Winters S, Bisceglia M, Swanson D, Aamodt R, Becich MJ. A multi-disciplinary approach to honest broker services for tissue banks and clinical data: a pragmatic and practical model. Cancer 2008 Oct1;113(7):1705-15. PMID: 18683217; PMCID: PMC2745185; NIHMS:58661.

3.  As the PI of the contract to the University of Pittsburgh to support the TCGA project, we provided approximately 800 cases and were one of the largest contributors to the TCGA effort.

a) Integrated genomic characterization of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Electronic address: giordano@umich.edu; Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Cell. 2014 Oct 23;159(3):676-90. PMID:25417114. PMCID:PMC4243044; NIHMS:633017.

b) Comprehensive molecular profiling of lung adenocarcinoma. Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Nature. 2014 Jul 31; 511(7511):543-50. PMID: 25079552; PMCID: PMC4231481; NIHMS:629713.

c) Comprehensive molecular characterization of gastric adenocarcinoma. Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Nature. 2014 Sep 11;513(7517):202-9. PMID: 25079317; PMCID: PMC4170219; NIHMS:627842.

d) Comprehensive molecular characterization of urothelial bladder carcinoma. Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Nature. 2014 Mar 20;507(7492):315-22. PMID: 24476821; PMCID: PMC3962515; NIHMS:551110.

Complete List of Publications